


Oh, I Wanna Know

by FireMane15



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, But Nothing Too Bad, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29131128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireMane15/pseuds/FireMane15
Summary: It’s been a little over a week since defeating Deathstroke, and in that time, he hasn’t talked to Kory.Not really talked.They’ve talked with other people around. Talked in a group setting.But not alone. Never alone.The last time they talked just the two of them was right before he gave himself over to Deathstroke. And they mostly talked about him. He wants to know about her./Dick wants to know more about Kory, but she has a lot on her mind.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Koriand'r
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	Oh, I Wanna Know

It shouldn’t be this difficult to talk to her.

Well, it’s not actually talking to her that’s the problem. It’s finding a chance to talk to her. Finding an opening to talk to her. Alone.

It shouldn’t be this hard.

And Dick doesn’t know why he’s stressing about it so much. Doesn’t know why he’s nervous. He’s always found it easy to talk to her. Well, not easy. Dick wouldn’t say he has an easy time talking to anyone. But it’s _easier_ with Kory. 

And he’s sure it will be easy again... if he could just get a moment alone with her.

It’s been a little over a week since defeating Deathstroke, and in that time, he hasn’t talked to Kory.

Not really talked.

They’ve talked with other people around. Talked in a group setting.

But not alone. Never alone.

The last time they talked just the two of them was right before he gave himself over to Deathstroke. And they mostly talked about him. He wants to know about her.

She got her memories back. They haven’t talked about it.

She’s always so busy. Constantly moving from one thing to the next, seemingly never taking a moment to relax, to pause.

He entertains the thought that she’s avoiding him, but he doesn’t think so. He couldn’t think why she would. And besides, it seems to be something else. More like an inability to just sit in thought, in silence. That makes him wonder if she’s avoiding something else.

He really wants to talk to her.

Just, without being able to find a moment alone with her naturally, organically, he doesn’t know how to approach her.

He could knock on her bedroom door at night. But...he worries she might think that he was there for other reasons. Not that he would be opposed to those other reasons. He’s uh...not opposed at all. But maybe she would be?

He doesn’t really know where they stand now. Well, he’s never really known where they stand. Or what they are to each other.

What he does know is that he wants to talk to her.

He could just ask to talk to her. Take her aside and tell her he wants to talk. But... that feels so formal, like he has something serious to say...rather than he just wants to spend time talking to her. Wants to catch up. Wants to know her. Wants to know about the memories she got back. Who she is.

She gets up early. Earlier than anyone else. He knows that about her. She’s a morning person.

He is definitely not a morning person. But he could get up early one day. When she’s the only one up. And then they would be alone.

So he does.

* * *

He wakes up at 6:00 am. And fuck, he’s tired. How does she do it?

He takes a very fast shower, brushes his teeth, and then heads out to the kitchen.

Kory’s there. Sitting at the table. Eating scrambled eggs and raspberries. Reading a newspaper.

He heads over to the coffee maker. He wants to actually be able to pay attention to what she’s saying.

“Hey.”

She looks up in surprise.

“Hey..” she says confused. “Why are you up so early?”

_For you._

“I just woke up, and couldn’t get back to sleep,” Dick tells her.

He makes himself coffee, and then goes sits down at the table across from Kory.

“So.....” he says.

She looks at him questioningly. “So...?”

“You, uh... got you memories back.”

“I did.”

He’s expecting her to continue, to open up, to say more.

But she doesn’t.

He didn’t plan for that.

“Yeah, uh.. so...”

He doesn’t know what to say. Fuck! Why is this so difficult? It’s never been difficult to talk to her before. But Kory’s usually so open, so eager to talk.

But she doesn’t seem to be now.

He goes for light-hearted. Flirty.

“So, just who are you, Kory Anders?” Dick asks with a playful smile.

She just raises an eyebrow at him.

He should never try to be suave. It has never worked out.

She huffs a little laugh.

“How do you expect me to answer that?” she asks him.

“I.. uh..”

“It’s a big question. Not one that can really be summed up in a simple statement. Unless it’s some bullshit job interview answer... I mean, how would you answer that question, Dick Grayson?”

“That’s... That’s fair. I don’t know.”

He laughs, and she joins him.

When their laughter dies down, he gets back on track.

“Okay. Then, just tell me something. Anything. Something I don’t know. Something you didn’t know until your memories came back,” he asks.

He cringes a the intensity of his voice.

“Is this an interrogation?” 

It’s not. And he knows she knows that it’s not what he’s doing. She’s avoiding talking about herself. He just doesn’t understand why.

Should he push her on it? Or let it go?

She’s pushed him plenty of times. And he needed it. Maybe she does too.

“Now whose the one being so secretive?” he tells her.

That hits her. 

She looks as if he punched her.

Fuck. He didn’t mean to hurt her. 

He goes to apologize, but Kory lets out a humorless laugh before he can.

“I guess you’re right,” she tells him. “Okay, ask me a question.”

She plays with her ring.

“What did you do on Tamaran? For like a job? You came here on a mission to stop Trigon. So were you like a warrior? Or like a spy or something like the CIA?”

Kory takes a deep breath.

“I was, well still am, a princess,” she says as she scans his face nervously.

His brain stops working.

A princess? Like as in royalty? As in - fuck.

“Wow... you’re a... you’re a princess. Wow. That’s... That’s yeah.”

He lets out a little laugh, even though he doesn’t find it funny at all.

“Ok. Wow.”

“Say wow one more time,” she teases him.

He gives her a half-smile.

“So when you say princess, do you mean of a country or...?”

“The planet.”

“A...a whole planet... that’s...”

“Wow?” Kory guesses

He huffs a laugh. “Yeah.”

She smiles at him.

Once he gets over the shock, a terrible thought occurs to him. A thought that makes his stomach drop.

“Does...Does that mean you’ll have to leave? Eventually? I mean, if you’re a princess of another planet, you can’t stay here forever, can you? You have to go back and do princessy things?” he asks her.

Kory’s smile falls.

Fuck. She’s going to leave. Maybe not now. But at some point. There will be a point that she’ll leave him. That she won’t be in his life anymore. Fuck, he feels like he can’t breathe.

“I don’t know,” she says.

“You don’t know?”

“That’s what I just said! It’s complicated,” she tells him harshly.

She takes a few breaths before she speaks again.

“I don’t have to leave now. That’s all I know,” she tells him softly.

They sit in the silence. Not a comfortable silence. An awkward silence.

He tries to find a way to break it.

“You know, that seemed like a pretty obvious answer to the ‘who are you’ question.”

He smiles playfully at her, raising an eyebrow. 

She doesn’t smile back.

“Yeah,” she says quietly, looking down at her food and playing with it.

The air between them changes, growing tense and melancholy. And he doesn’t know why. But he does know a wall going up when he sees one.

“What’s going on with you?”

“What do you mean?” she asks anxiously.

“You seem closed off, guarded. It’s not like you,” he tells her gently.

“Well, maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Kory snaps at him.

Now, he feels like he’s been punched.

“I’m sorry.” Kory says immediately. “I didn’t mean that...I...”

She runs her hands over her face and through her hair.

“I’m sorry... I’m just... I...”

She looks at him. Her eyes are wide, and she looks...scared? There is a helplessness that pervades her expression. Like a frightened animal.

He’s never seen her look like that before. And it makes his heart seize up in fear.

What is going on with her?

It renders him speechless. He wants to tell her that it’s okay, to stop apologizing. But he can’t get any words out.

“I’m sorry,” she says again, as she gets up, and walks quickly towards the door.

He wants to grab her wrist, get her to stay and talk to him, but he’s worried it would startle her more. So he just settles for calling her name.

“Kory,” he calls.

She looks back at him.

“I just... I need space, Dick.”

She looks at him pleadingly.

“Okay,” he tells her.

* * *

Things between them for the rest of the day are awkward, strained. They don’t talk. They don’t joke. She won’t even look at him. And he keeps his distance, like she asked for.

He’s terrified he’s fucked things up with her. Which is the last thing he wanted to do. He just wanted to get closer.

He thinks the others notice the tenseness between them.

He knows the others notice something when Dawn approaches him.

“Did something happen between you and Kory?” she asks

“No.”

Lie.

“Are you sure? Things seem...different, tense between you two?”

“We’re fine,” he says shortly.

He hopes that’s not a lie.

* * *

That night, he’s just out of the shower, just put on his pajama pants, when he hears a soft knock on his bedroom door.

When he opens it, his heart stutters. It’s Kory.

“Hey,” she says quietly. “Can I come in?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure. Of course.”

He hates this awkwardness between them.

He opens the door wider and steps aside. She walks in and sits on his bed.

He closes the door, and takes a few, slow steps closer to her. He doesn’t know where to go. Should he sit on the bed next to her? Thinking of her earlier plea for space, he decides not to. He goes to lean against the credenza opposite of her.

He waits for her to start.

“I’m sorry...about this morning,” she says after a few moments of silence.

“You don’t have to apologize. I mean, we haven’t known each other that long and there’s a lot I don’t know abo-”

“No, I do have to. Apologize. And you were right. That wasn’t me. I’m not closed off. I don’t lash out like that. I don’t know what that was. And I don’t like it. It’s not how I wanna be. I..I...”

She struggles for words.

“I just feel so lost, and confused, and _angry_ ," she says, the pain evident in her voice.

“Look, I get it. Lost, confused, and angry? I’ve been there. I’ve lived there,” he tells her.

She looks at him gratefully.

“I know,” says says softly.

She looks like she wants to say something else. He gives her an encouraging nod.

“I just... I feel like i’ve lost control over everything. My powers, my circumstances, even my emotions, and my... other things.”

He looks at her. Really looks at her.

“Kory, did something happen? I mean, besides Donna and losing your powers?”

She bits her lip, looking wounded and conflicted. 

“Yes.”

She gulps, and looks at him like she’s waiting for something, or looking for something.

He walks over and sits on the bed. Right next to her.

He hesitates a moment before taking her hand. He runs him thumb gently back and forth over her knuckles, in what he hopes is a comforting, reassuring gesture.

“I... my...” Kory starts.

She lets out a breath and starts again.

“Do you remember when I said I had a loose end to take care of?” she asks him.

“Yes.”

“Well, It was my friend, Faddei. He was part of Tamaran Royalty Protective Services. A body guard.”

He nods along, showing her he understands.

“He got taken over by mind control. By my sister. The mind control. It was irreversible. And fatal. Painfully so...So, I killed him. To spare him the suffering.”

She looks at him fearfully, waiting for a reaction. She looks in his eyes. He can tell that she’s looking for judgement. But he knows that she’ll find none. Only sympathy and understanding. And sadness for her.

“And then my sister told me that she’d killed our parents. And that she’d taken over as queen of Tamaran, taken my crown. I was the heir, the one supposed to be queen after my parents. Although not anytime soon, because they were supposed to -” 

She breaks out into sobs.

Dick knows that there is nothing he can say to make it better. He’s been there. He knows.

So he moves closer to her. Wraps his arms around her, and pulls her into his chest.

He holds her as she cries.

And his heart breaks. He wishes he could take her pain away. He wishes he could absorb it and take it from her. Bear it for her. But he can’t.

He can only hold her. And be there for her as she grieves. As she figures things out.

And he plans to.

He’s fucked up so many relationships. Failed so many people. He won’t fail her.

“I’m here,” he whispers into her hair, as he rubs her back.

“Whatever you need.”


End file.
